Jan 18, 2004

Why Katherine Harris Buckled to GOP Plan

The class of Politics 101 will now open its textbook to chapter 1 – Getting Elected to Public Office.

Obiter dictum is: “Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.”

Consider the contretemps of Katherine Harris, Republican, first term U.S. Representative for Florida District 13. She wanted to run for the senatorial post vacated by Democrat Senator Bob Graham.

So does Mel Martinez who gave us his federal post as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for the opportunity.

So does Bill McCollum, Republican and former U.S. Representative who four years ago ran against now Sen. Richard Nelson, Democrat, and lost.

Of the G0P wannabes, Harris polls highest. She was in town the other day with Gov. Jeb Bush testing the political water. Apparently the tide was out. Last Friday she announced she will finish her present term ‘after careful consideration.”

Not to lament. Sen. Nelson’s first term expires in 2006, and office holders are most vulnerable to defeat in a quest for reelection to a second term.

Rep. Harris is on a roll, and it is easier to campaign for an open seat than against an incumbent. Nevertheless she is a professional politician and needs the support of a political party. Independent candidates finish last.

Harris is an effective backbencher after one year in Washington and would make a great Senator. Now, however, she is running with the big boys adept in wielding blunt instruments.

As Florida elections officer, Harris was bludgeoned by Dem spinmeisters in the aftermath of the Florida presidential 2000 elections.

She carried out her duties to the letter of the law and was vindicated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Since then, Gov. Bush wheedled money out of the legislature to help local election boards replace punch-card ballots with touch-screen computers.

Not enough. Democrats here and nation-wide, are aching for an opportunity to vindicate their attempt to hi-jack the 2000 election by crushing Harris and Dubya.

In addition to her own political baggage, Harris also had to bow to that carried by the top of the national Republican ticket -- i.e. G.W. Bush and Cheney.

The animosity toward Harris is doubled in spades by Bush haters. He won the presidency comfortably by states’ electoral count – as the Constitution stipulates – by just 537 popular votes in Florida.

Bush lost the national popular vote by 544,000. A plurality prevails in all other elections except that for the presidency. The Founding Fathers wisely shielded the highest political office from popular passions.

Third-party spoiler, Ralph Nader, with 2.8 million “Green” votes, certainly siphoned away a winning margin from Al Gore. Dem ire properly should be directed to Nader.

The lesson that the Democrats should have learned from the 2000 debacle is either (1) they should have stressed more radical policies to woo environmentalists, or (2) should have adopted more moderate proposals appealing to centrists.

If the answer to this conundrum were obvious, we wouldn’t need political parties.

In the present campaign, the Bush team knows it has to corral more minority voters wandering on the Democrat range.

Not much can be done to woo African-Americans. This is strange inasmuch as it was the Republican Party that freed blacks from slavery and provided a solid block of votes for civil rights in contrast to southern Democrats.

Forgitit. Our lesson today is devoted to reality, not theory.

President Bush needs more votes from minorities, and Latinos are the mother lode as the largest minority.

President Bush garnered 35 percent of the Latino votes in the last election. Another 3 percent would trigger a landslide this year.

Republicans would like that bonanza to come from Florida -- for the same reasons Democrats would like to deny it.

Bush persuaded Martinez, of Miami, to give up a cabinet post to run for U.S. Senator. It is assumed this would boost the already sizeable Latino vote in Florida – thereby enhancing the vote there for the Bush brothers and nationally for the GOP.

Harris would have had to buck the blunt objects arrayed against her to run for senator at this time. She is ambitious – a trait Americans like in their politicians because it keeps representatives responsive

However, she recognizes the import of blunt objects.

PARTING SHOTS

President Bush has proposed sending a man to Mars – preferably his former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neil.

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Figure this out if you can. The terrorist alert has been “lowered” to “elevated.”

Lindsey Williams is a Sun columnist who can be reached at linwms@lindseywilliams.org